Posted on 07/23/2013 1:13:18 PM PDT by huldah1776
The U.S. military in Afghanistan spent $32 million to prevent Improvised Explosive Device attacks after more than 600 troops were killed, but brass has no proof the pricey effort was effective — or even implemented. ... Culvert denial systems are a range of devices used to deny terrorists access to culverts – pipes and tunnels used to channel water under roadways, and a favorite hiding spot for IEDs. The denial systems, from metal grates to more advanced devices, block entry to the pipes, but still allow water to flow. Prices to install the systems range from $800 to $6,500, the IG said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Our bureaucracy is so staggeringly bloated that even the departments which have a constitutional purpose can easily lose several times the 32 million mentioned in this story and not even notice.
I can tell you where it went.
Boob belts. Vacations. Golfbags. Waffles.
600 American mostly white men dead and the GD Pentagon would not even attempt an effective counter mine program. They were too busy catering to the Islamist. Then there were the US soldiers in Iraq desperately welding armor plates on their crappy humvees....4500 dead Americans and 30,000 wounded in the worthless Iraq invasion. Hell yeah someone needs to be held to account. SRLD, Short Rope Long Drop!
600 American mostly white men dead and the GD Pentagon would not even attempt an effective counter mine program. They were too busy catering to the Islamist. Then there were the US soldiers in Iraq desperately welding armor plates on their crappy humvees....4500 dead Americans and 30,000 wounded in the worthless Iraq invasion. Hell yeah someone needs to be held to account. SRLD, Short Rope Long Drop!
Why is anyone surprised? Our troops have been screwed over by our government for a long time. Don’t give Bush a pass. He and his pals are the ones who sent our guys into an impossible situation with no real objective in the first place.
Anyone with any knowledge of history could see that these invasions would turn into a long slog with no upside for our country. We have replaced one set of thugs with another, enriched and emboldened our enemies, wasted billions of dollars, put Democrats in office because people are tired of the wars, allowed the government to infringe on our rights and privacy, and most important, lost a lot of good people. There is no end in sight, and the idiot politicians want to invade Syria now! It’s a travesty.
I am not anti-war. I am anti-stupid war.
I am certain that some anti IED devices were deployed. Suspect they were electronic in nature. Don’t know the details, but know it was done.
How effective they were? Am not sure.
Grates? Grates?
Did any of these idiots every hear of Bangalore Torpedoes? Grates will not do a thing to stop these or any other similar ingenuities.
>> 4500 dead Americans and 30,000 wounded in the worthless Iraq invasion
“The worthless Iraq invasion” — popular, irresponsible scorn.
“Why is anyone surprised? Our troops have been screwed over by our government for a long time. Don’t give Bush a pass. He and his pals are the ones who sent our guys into an impossible situation with no real objective in the first place.
Anyone with any knowledge of history could see that these invasions would turn into a long slog with no upside for our country. We have replaced one set of thugs with another, enriched and emboldened our enemies, wasted billions of dollars, put Democrats in office because people are tired of the wars, allowed the government to infringe on our rights and privacy, and most important, lost a lot of good people. There is no end in sight, and the idiot politicians want to invade Syria now! It’s a travesty.
I am not anti-war. I am anti-stupid war.”
This is an excellent post!
Pretty much. We also gave trillions of dollars to a country which firmly believes that Christians and Jews are descended from pigs and dogs. Giving school supplies to girls isn’t going to change that.
The Afghans have learned very well how to harvest the Yankee Money Tree.
To the US elite, American troops are mere cannon fodder to be used and wasted on whatever foreign policy adventure the government decides to engage in.
So no amount of neglect surprises me in the least. The ultimate slap-in-the-face is when US forces are sent on these stupid, pointless missions in the first place.
The US elites don't read history because they honestly don't think history applies to them. That's what "American exceptionalism" is all about.
Invading Afghanistan? Don't bother to analyze the Soviet experience. After all, they were Commies and we're exporting freedom. Who cares if the locals don't want it? They will eventually.
Invading Iraq? Pay no attention to the sectarian fault-lines, don't bother to learn the difference between Sunni and Shiite (as no war planners did), and feel free to disban the army and fire all state employees. Everything will work out just fine because we're the USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!
Hell, US elites don't even learn from THEIR OWN history!
Backing jihadis in Afghanistan in the 1980s had some unplanned consequences like the WTC being gone? No worries! That won't repeat itself in Syria even though Al Qaeda is there in droves.
Insanity.
Back in 2007, I spent a half year deployed to Afghanistan doing anti-IED work. I was NOT alone.
However, this article focuses on one narrow and apparently misguided effort:
“The IG already found two Afghan contractors who billed the U.S. government $1 million for the installation of 250 such devices, but then never completed the work or did it haphazardly.
There are at least 2,500 places where the prevention devices were supposed to be installed...no one’s certain if they ever actually were.”
I knew that there were some functional programs. No details, no personal contact with anything associated. I do know people who were. Often you can sense by things not said what is actually going on, when you dare not ask a direct question.
Familiarity conveys some things without being said.
This is a sense that I developed from acquaintances and relatives. My father in law was in the weapons business 40 years. I was married to his daughter for 8 years before I had any idea what he did. That came from a newspaper article that floored me. He and I were very close, he did not talk shop, but much was conveyed by silence or general conversation. He made it clear to me back in the 1970’s that the FBI knew who I was and what I did for a living, etc. I had neighbors who told me that they were contacted about us. But I was always confident that prying in my life was to defend the nation. Now, it is being used to subject the citizens and target those who will oppose the destruction of the nation.
Protect & defend her I will.
And the salt in the wound is the stupid rules of engagement that ties their hands.
I agree! I said on the first day “We’ll never win this because we’re not willing to do what must be done.”
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